


Contingency Plan

by purplenighttime



Category: Firefly
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Girls with Guns, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 21:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/398568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplenighttime/pseuds/purplenighttime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which River decides she won't let the Alliance get her brain again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contingency Plan

**Author's Note:**

> This was something I wrote as a sort of exercise, to try and get inside River's brain and see what it's like to write from her perspective. It's part of a larger piece I wrote, but as of now I'm not sure if I'm going to upload that.

River slips down from her perch above the crew bunks. Simon is downstairs and he won’t know what she’s doing. Which is good. Simon’s brain might explode if he knew what she wanted to do. She wonders if the pressure generated by an exploding brain is enough to rupture the skull, or if it would just liquify the brain. Unfortunately, there is no way to perform an acceptable experiment, as she would need at least three Simons for the experiment, in order to ensure accuracy.

When she reaches Jayne’s bunk she peers inside. It’s empty, so she climbs quickly down the ladder and looks around the room. It looks essentially just like hers, a small bunk in the corner and a fold-up table on the wall. The table’s down, and on it are piles of papers that look like letters. 

She’s never gotten any letters, not even when she was part of the family, in the Academy. She was always the one sending them.  Simon is always saying not to go through other people’s things, though, so she doesn’t look at the letters. 

It isn’t why she is here, anyway. 

She turns to face the opposite wall, where guns of various shapes, sizes, and materials are leaned against it. Vera, Jayne’s favorite rifle that he takes with him on every job, is at the end, and the guns are lined up in a line in no particular order. It’s all wrong - if the guns were organized by relative mass, as they should be, the Glock would be before the Beretta. 

Ignoring the catastrophic organization - she’ll have to inform Jayne about it later - she looks for something small. She knows that he’ll notice right away if she takes a bigger gun, and she has nowhere to hide one of that size. 

At the end is a small pistol, surprisingly small given the mercenary’s preference for big weapons. River picks it up, and it fits neatly in the palm of her hand. “Like it was meant to fit here,” she whispers. 

The metal is cold and smooth against her skin, and she feels quite relaxed. More so than when she first walked in, because now she’s got a contingency plan. The Alliance isn’t going to take her, and if they try, maybe she will take a few of them with her. 

Her hands start shaking at the thought of having to go back to the White Room with the needles, and she drops the gun. It clangs loudly against the floor, and she turns to leave. 

She can’t, though, because Jayne is standing in front of the ladder. From what she can guess, he probably came down a few seconds ago. She decides to act like nothing’s happened. Walks toward the ladder, but he doesn’t move. He’s glaring at her. She knows this expression is usually associated with the emotion of anger or frustration. Angry Jayne is not good. River decides that she will leave as quickly as possible. 

“What the hell are you doin’?” he demands gruffly. 

“Your guns are disorganized,” she tells him, and tries to get around him to get to the ladder. 

He grabs her shoulders. “What are ya doing in my bunk?” he repeats. 

River looks down, ashamed. Doesn’t want anyone to know how scared she was. “This is where the guns are,” she says finally. 

She sees the confusion in Jayne’s eyes. “ _Ta ma de_ , crazy! What in the ‘verse do ya want a gun for? You’re a ruttin’ weapon yourself.”  
   
“Don’t want one. Need one. They can’t take her brain if it’s gone,” she says, glaring at him. 

She hasn’t forgotten how Ariel went, how he’d almost given her and Simon back to the hands of blue. But she also knows that he’s changed now, knows she’s part of the crew now. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he knew. 

So long as he doesn’t tell Simon, who would freak out. Although Simon freaking out does make her laugh sometimes. 

She watches as the expression on Jayne’s face goes from confused to understanding. “You gonna kill yourself, _bao-bei_?” he asks, leaning back with one leg propped against the ladder. 

River wouldn’t put it that way - it is more like she's destroying the shipment rather than get it confiscated. Besides, she was only going to do it if they came for her.   
“Have to take precautions. They’ll be ready to get their freak back so their freak has to be ready for them.” 

Jayne leans forward. "Oh, c'mon, crazy. They took the warrant off your and your brother's head after Miranda, didn't they? They ain't gonna be lookin' for you."

River disagrees. She'd heard the doctors talking. Most valuable specimen, we'll make an army just like her, be the perfect weapon. She knows the Alliance don't just give people up like that. Besides, she doesn't think it's a good idea to land on Osiris without protection. Even if the Alliance doesn't show up.

"I need a weapon," she tells Jayne stubbornly.

He sighs. "I wouldn't let anything hurt ya, ya know that," he says. "But I c'n see where you're comin' from. I wouldn't want those Alliance freaks messing with my thoughts."

The man with the girl's name crosses the bunk in a single step, and he picks up the pistol River had dropped. "Here ya go."

River takes the gun again, once again marveling at how right it feels in her hand. How secure. She realizes it’s a paradox: a weapon holding a weapon intending to use the weapon to hurt itself. 

She likes paradoxes. 

She looks up to see Jayne looking at her, his arms folded over his chest. "It was always too small for me, anyway. Been savin' it for a time when I needed it, but seems like you need it more. Suits ya, too."

River smiles and tucks the gun into the waistband of her shorts. She'll have to make a holster for it, she decides, and turns to go up the ladder.

"Don't tell your brother I gave it to ya," he calls after her. "The Doc would blow a gasket."

River nods. She has no intention of letting anyone take this from her. And if Simon found out he would want to put more needles in her, find out what made her want the gun. She knows he means well, but he is too enthusiastic with needles. 

"On second thought, go ahead and let him know. It'd be funny, seein' him lose his cool."

She wonders if the male species specifically enjoys watching other members of the species suffer, or if it is something men develop when placed in a confined location - namely a metal container inside a vacuum. She steps away from the ladder and goes to walk to her own bunk, before she remembers. "Thank you," she calls down to Jayne.

"Just don't come in my bunk and shoot me with it," he says gruffly.


End file.
